1:32 SOPWITH TRIPLANE

Why there is only one stencil in the box

The number of die-cut insignia matches how many the machine actually carried and how many of them one film can handle. A triplane has three flying surfaces, but each of them is very narrow, so a large insignia simply would not fit on it. The markings were therefore drawn back to the fuselage and the underside of the lower wing and their total number stayed low. The modest contents of the set are thus not a shortcoming but a faithful reflection of the subject.

A machine with three thin wings

The Sopwith Triplane entered service at the beginning of 1917 with the naval squadrons and its main strength was climb. Three narrow surfaces gave great lift at low drag and from the cockpit the pilot saw up and down considerably better than from a biplane. The drawbacks were a single machine gun barrel and demanding maintenance, because a mechanic could reach the engine only after dismantling part of the struts.

Before you reach for the film

Narrow wings mean that the stencil lies close to both the leading and the trailing edge and it is easy to overrun the margin. It pays to secure the edges with a strip of paper tape. The box contains one stencil for the national insignia and nothing else.

An airbrush at lower pressure will handle the spraying. More important than power is a short distance and a thin coat that does not get under the edge of the cutout.

The set saves time above all: cutting the outline from tape takes a good half hour on an insignia with a rounded edge and the result comes out different every time. Die-cut film gives the same shape first time and the modeler can turn to what is genuinely demanding on a triplane, that is the struts and getting them aligned in one plane.